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Virginia Falls To Wake Forest, 77-66
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Jan. 5, 2003
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (courtesy of wakeforestsports.com) – The Wake Forest women’s basketball team picked up its first conference victory ofthe season, defeating Virginia, 77-66, on Sunday afternoon at Joel Coliseum. The win moves the Demon Deacons to10-2, 1-1 in league play while the Cavs fall to 5-7, 0-2 in the ACC.
The WFU victory also marked its first win over Virginia since Jan. 13, 1978. During that time, the Cavaliers puttogether a 49-game win streak against the Deacons.
Today, Wake Forest jumped out to an early 9-0 lead, sparked by junior Eafton Hill (Boone, N.C.), who scored sevenof the Deacs’ points during that opening run. WFU led by as many as 15 points late in the first period before taking a35-24 lead into the lockerroom at the half. Hill had 11 points and seven rebounds at the break. The Wahoos wereplagued with several early turnovers, committing 14 by halftime.
Virginia came out aggressive in the second stanza, however, opening with a 10-2 run to cut the lead to 37-34 in theearly goings. The Cavaliers kept chipping away at the deficit while the Deacon offense stalled, and Virginia took its firstlead of the game at the 12:21 mark on a Tiffany Sardin layup, going up 42-41.
The teams then traded baskets and Virginia led 44-43 before Wake Forest went on a 7-0 scoring run, including twolayups from senior Tiffani Listenbee (Clinton Township, Mich.) and a three-pointer from freshman Cotelia Bond-Young(Landover, Md.) to give WFU a 50-43 edge.
Virginia would get close one more time, pulling to within three points, 55-52, at the 5:52 mark on a pair of free throwsby LaTonya Blue. But the Deacs sank their next three shots from the field to pull away, and never looked back.Virginia sent Wake to the line several times as the clock wound down, and the Deacons sank 12-of-15 free throwsover the final two minutes to lead by as many as 13 points with seven seconds remaining. UVa’s Safiya Grant-Fairleyhit a jumper in the last second to make the final score 77-66.
The Demon Deacons had a balanced scoring attack with five players posting double-figures; the second game thisseason WFU has accomplished that feat. Listenbee scored a team-high 15 points, with 11 of those in the second half,to go along with six rebounds and two blocked shots. Hill finished with 14 points. Junior forward Tracy Alston(Raleigh, N.C.), starting for the first time this season, set a career-best with 12 points. Junior guard Tonia Brown(Roanoke, Va.) had 10 points and tied her career-high with eight assists. Sophomore Erin Ferrell (Gaithersburg, Md.)came off the bench to post double-figures for the third straight game, scoring 10 points. Hill and Bond-Young bothpulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Virginia’s Blue led all scorers with 24 points, including 10-of-11 from the free throw line. She had just four points athalftime. The Cavaliers, which entered the game as the ACC’s worst free-throw shooting team at 58.4 percent,converted on 19-of-24 from the stripe for a season-best 79.2 shooting percentage.
The Demon Deacons hit the road for the first time in conference play, traveling to Chapel Hill to face nationally-rankedNorth Carolina on Thursday, Jan. 9. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at UNC’s Carmichael Auditorium. The game will bebroadcast locally on the radio on WBRF 98.1 FM. Virginia returns to Charlottesville to host top-ranked Duke, also onJan. 9 (7:30 p.m.).
Postgame Quotes
Wake Forest vs. Virginia
Wake Forest Coach Charlene Curtis
“I am very proud of this team today. To be able to come back from a loss like Florida State and play tougher andbetter says a lot about this team. I am very proud of them. We had a couple good days of practice and came out andplayed very well today.”
“Once we got ahead we faced the challenge of sustaining it because we knew that they would make a run, or two, andthat it was just a matter of not buckling under the pressure.”
“We take a lot of pride in our defense and we did a good job with our post defense and our guards really did a greatjob pressuring the ball. Even though we were outrebounded, we got boards when we needed them.”
“We are more happy about getting a win, being 1-1 in the ACC instead of 0-2 than we are about ending the streak, butit is a special thing to us to finally beat them again.”
WFU’s Tiffani Listenbee
“It was a big milestone for us, but it was huge for us to get a win at home, especially after losing a close one last time.We weren’t taking good shots, but we were playing with lots of intensity. We picked up a bunch of fouls at thebeginning of the second half and let them get back in the game. We knew we needed to play better defense.”
Virginia Coach Debbie Ryan
“Obviously we had to fight very hard to take the lead and that expended a lot of our energy to do that. We didn’tadjust very well from zone defense to man-to-man. It is a good thing to return home, but we are not happy abouttoday. Streaks are made to come to an end, but Wake Forest has a really good team this year.”
UVa’s LaTonya Blue
“We knew coming out in the second half that we needed to spread the floor and penetrate if we were going to get backinto it. We’re real affective inside and haven’t shot well outside lately, including myself, but it hurt us today not gettingthe shots in the paint to fall today.”